"New" computer trouble (1 Viewer)

[Chad Isaacs]

I was recently given a HP Pavilion xt953. It has Win Me and all the AOl software one could ever want

When I turn the computer on I get a few error messages, one saying that explore has caused an error in syster 32.dll, explorer will now close and the other says taskpanl has caused an error in taskpanl will now close. I cant even control alt delete my self into the computer or get into control panel to start removing programs nor can I get into "run" to check for viruses or spyware. Any advice? Is there a "backdoor" to restore the system? I have 2 of the 3 discs.

Thanks for any help

 

[Carlo_M]

Sorry Chad, it sounds like fdisk is your friend (reformatting the hard drive and starting over).

Try to get a clean copy of WinXP and start over. WinMe was a disaster (I had it on a computer).

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

As soon as the PC starts to boot up start tapping the "F8" key. This should give you the Windows start-up options menu. Select "safe mode". Once the GUI load go to Start, Run and type MSCONFIG. Click on the last two tabs and turn off anything that you aren't sure of. Then go into Control Panel, Add/Remove programs and uninstall anything you know you'll never use or know to be bad. Boot it up again and see where you are. If it more-or-less comes back get on the 'net, do a Google search for "Ad Aware" and "Spybot Search and Destroy", download install and run both programs. Once then install/run a good anti-virus program. Once all of this is done you'll still have ME, which sucks, but you'll probably have removed a lot of other problems.

Regards,

Joe

P.S.

How much does the person who gave you this PC hate you?

 

[Chad Isaacs]

Thanks guys, I will try your advice Joseph. And I will let you know what happens.

 

[Carlo_M]

Chad, Joseph gives good advice, but I really suggest you ditch ME like...yesterday. There are so many problems with it (and I don't think MS officially supports it anymore). If you have access to a college student store (i.e. know anyone in college) they can get a 1-license copy of Windows XP for you for cheaper that what you'd pay at Best Buy. Or if you need a piece of PC hardware (HD, memory, etc) you can buy an OEM of WinXP from online PC hardware/software retailers for around $140.

Good luck!

 

[ThomasC]

What in the world was so bad about WinME? I didn't think it was too bad when I was using it. Maybe I'm just used to encountering problems with Windows.

 

[Scott L]

Agreed! I thought ME was a step down from 98se, so I stuck with that until Win2k came out.

When getting a computer that old and messed with I'd just reformat, reinstall an OS.

 

[Chad Isaacs]

Well, I have to get somthing going. He found the restore disks and I ran disk one and when it was done I put in the next disk like it asked me to, well, it was the wrong one so now I have NOTHING, yay...

I had ME on a Gateway pc I had, I never really had too many complaints about it and heck, a free computer is better than no computer.

Thanks guys

 

[Chad Isaacs]

Well, I am online with a tech support agent now seeing what we can do about atleast getting a new sys restore diskuntil I can get a new o.s. Thanks again for all of your help